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Kevin O'Leary

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Kevin O'Leary
File:Kevin O'Leary (entrepreneur, reality show personality).jpg
Born (1954-07-09) July 9, 1954 (age 70)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
OccupationEntrepreneur

Kevin O'Leary (born 9 July 1954) is a Canadian entrepreneur, venture capitalist, investor, and television personality.

Early life and education

O'Leary was born in Mount Royal, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, to a salesman father and seamstress mother.[1] His father was Irish and his mother was of Lebanese descent.[2] O'Leary's parents divorced when he was young, and his father died shortly after that. His mother later re-married.[citation needed] He studied for two years at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean followed by the University of Waterloo.[3]

Career

Kevin started a software company in the basement of a small Toronto home along with partners John Freeman and Gary Babcock. His mother provided the seed investment of $10,000, which he used to start software publisher SoftKey. In 1999, the Learning Company was acquired by Mattel in a $3.8 billion stock swap[4].

In 2003 he became co-investor and a director in Storage Now, a developer of climate controlled storage facilities. Through a series of development projects and acquisitions, Storage Now became Canada’s third largest owner/operator of storage services with facilities located in eleven cities serving such companies as Merck and Pfizer when it was acquired by the In Storage REIT in March 2007 for $110 million.[citation needed]

In March 2007 O'Leary joined the advisory board of Genstar Capital, a private equity firm that focuses on investments in selected segments of life science and healthcare services, industrial technology, business services and software. Genstar Capital appointed O'Leary to its Strategic Advisory Board to seek new investment opportunities for its $1.2 billion fund. O’Leary also serves on the executive board of The Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. He is a member of the investment committee of Boston’s 107 year old Hamilton Trust and an investor of EnGlobe, a TSX listed company.[citation needed] He is a former co-host of SqueezePlay on Business News Network, Canada’s national business television specialty channel. O’Leary is currently working as the entrepreneur/investor co-host for the Discovery Channel’s Discovery Project Earth, a project that explores innovative ways man could reverse climate change.[citation needed]

O'Leary, serves as foil and expert on business affairs to Journalist Amanda Lang on The Lang and O'Leary Exchange on CBC News Network. He is also a venture capitalist on the Canadian version of Dragons' Den, which airs on CBC Television and CBC News Network, and a "shark" on the United States' version of Dragons' Den airing on ABC, Shark Tank.

In January 2008 he co-founded O'Leary Funds Inc., a mutual fund company that targets buy and hold investors. He is the company's chairman and lead investor.

Controversies

In October of 2010 O'Leary used the term "Indian Giver" during a live Lang and O'Leary Exchange. After a complaint from an aboriginal, Alex Jamieson, and condemnation from the CBC Ombudsman, O'Leary offered an apology for his use of the term.[5]

On October 5th 2011 O'Leary said to multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges that he was "sounding like a left-wing nutbar." Hedges accused O'Leary of "character assassination" and compared the quality and nature of the interview to the likes of "FOX News". Hedges closed by stating that "it will be the last time <he appears on the show>."[6][7]

Personal life

O'Leary fancies himself a wine enthusiast and a guitar player in his private life.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/kevin-oleary-the-shark-who-swims-alone/article2178538/
  2. ^ http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/the-dragons-pen-130900253.html
  3. ^ http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/10/05/on-his-unconventional-childhood-what-steve-jobs-is-really-like-and-what-don-cherry-taught-him/ Kevin O`Leary interview in Macleans Magazine 2011
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/television/john-doyle/kevin-oleary-and-other-reasons-to-be-disgusted/article1935689/
  6. ^ http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/9889-qfox-northq-pulitzer-prize-winning-journalist-calls-cbc-out.html
  7. ^ http://creekside1.blogspot.com/2011/10/chris-hedges-smacks-down-kevin-oleary.html

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